Role of Academic Mobility in the (De)Construction of Internationalization

Abstract

International mobility has played a central role in the views, policies, and actions of internationalization of higher education, despite representing a highly excluding, elitist process with flows that tend to reinforce asymmetrical relationships and colonial domination by the Global North of the Global South. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate how the international mobility is related to the construction of internationalization. To this end, the views of students and professors participating in the academic mobility of one university in Brazil, the Global South, and another in Spain, the Global North, will be analyzed through interviews and later they will be contrasted with the documental analysis of the official texts on internationalization of both institutions. Data will be approached qualitatively, aiming at enabling the understanding of the role that international academic mobility can play in the (de)construction of the perspectives and practices of internationalization of higher education institutions.